Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning :(
 

I had my car at Honda about a year ago and they applied the update to see if I can trigger IMA light again and then get a IMA battery warranty replacement. I obviously didn't know what I was getting into, otherwise I wouldn't have even been there in the first place. IMA light goes on and just as they were ready to give me a new pack under warranty my car got flagged as having a "salvage title" and therefore out of warranty range. I basically got screwed and really so did the dealer (in labor hours) due to the rep not checking that detail in the first place.

After quoting me $5000 for a new one, that was my queue to turn around.

I set on waiting around for a cheap scrap battery. (on old advice)

Finally found one for $500 (they average $1000 in my area) then got my charger
https://www.venompower.com/products/...ance-charger-1

Took the scrap battery apart and started charging "pairs" of sticks together.
I read somewhere setting limit to 9600mah for initial charge before cycling, so I did on 4 pairs, then I wanted to make sure of my Discharge/Charge settings, and that's when I read the whole "Battery refurbish in process - IMAX B6" thread today from beginning to end and by the end of it realizing I should have just bought a refurb pack or something. I'm now stuck/sitting here with 4 pairs charged up at 9601mah wondering if it's even worth proceeding.

Before all this refurb operation, I was set on getting a Maxx Volts charger, but read on their site that if my IMA light has been on for an good amount of time I would probably need to look into refurb which triggered me to do this whole thing.

A good year or two driving with my IMA light and plenty of "recals" on the frequent, I have doubts I have many good pairs in my pack. My salvaged pack I will also suspect having not many either now :(

Should I proceed just to proceed? Should I sell off my packs to service centers? will they even take my packs?

ALSO: regarding the update, if I have a known BCU that does not have an update applied, can I simply swap my BCU with it and I'll be back to normal again? I also have the ECU.

I'm contemplating driving down to the US to get a refurb pack. But again, I don't mind continuing with this experiment if I can get one pack going and usable for a year or 2 if it's worth it.

Re: Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning
 

What are you using to charge/discharge?

Re: Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning
 

Thanks for the quick reply S K!

https://www.venompower.com/products/...ance-charger-1

I just put on another 4 pairs, just cause.

I have a log of what the pairs Voltage were when pulled from the scrap car. Dunno if it even helps any.

Re: Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning
 

Turn the charger off please.

Can you send it back? Please do so immediately if you can - even if you have to pay a restocking fee. You've bought the wrong tool for the job. It's a piece of junk. It's just an extremely expensive Imax B6. 5W discharge power per channel means it's going to take you 13-14 hours to discharge. You could have gotten what... 13 of the IMAX B6 for the same price and had WAY MORE capability (please don't do this, though).

Get this:

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...e-charger.html

It can discharge internally at 80W (about 5.5A). This charger can discharge a subpack 16 times faster than the venom. It can discharge at 1000W regeneratively (into another battery). HCH2 subpacks can be used to power it for for regenerative discharging, i.e., you can take a fully charged HCH2 subpack and discharge it into an empty HCH2 subpack AT 30 AMPS!

It also has a formation charge function that is excellent for balancing.

You'll need a 12V power supply to power it. You can get modified server power supplies on ebay for cheap.

Any initial voltages over 14.4 are probably good. Any initial voltages under 14.4 are probably bad.


EDIT: Check your private messages.

Re: Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning
 

Yeah I ended up turning it off.
I can't send it back, I just posted it on Kijiji.

NONE of the initial charges on the Pairs had a charge above 14.4v! I think I just threw away a bunch of money I guess :\ I'm not sure the fact the car had been sitting for at least 4 months make much of a difference here.

Re: Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning
 

Above 14.4V is extremely positive. Below 14.4V is just uncertainty. They need to be cycled at "high" current to see if they can recover.

With the right equipment, as I linked above, and a little planning, you can potentially build a good pack from two.

Re: Took OLD advice from early posts RE: IMA battery warranty & stick reconditioning
 

OK, at least there is an inkling of hope :embarass: